Those lessons continue to help perpetuate his passion for music and energize his commitment to improving a world that once betrayed him.

"It's just an awareness that life is precious," said Lamb. a jazz saxophone player and composer from Portland, Ore. "It's not a bad thing anymore. It was, for a long time, a big cloud over my life.

"Music is cathartic. It's a healing part of my voice. I have a lot to say, but not everything can be put into words. Some things are better put into music."

For Lamb, that's "just my own style. It comes from a lot of things. Not just jazz. I'm an artistic writer. I'm just a musical artist."

He'll display his artistry - influenced by Ray Charles, Maceo Parker, the Jazz Crusaders' Wilton Felder, Rob Thomas and Stevie Wonder, with whom he performed Thursday in Chicago - during a 90-minute show Sunday at Stockton's University Plaza Waterfront Hotel.

Lamb faced mortality on May 12, 1986, when seven of his Oregon Episcopal School classmates perished in a mountain-climbing accident during a field trip on Mount Hood. Lamb had stayed home while recovering from a soccer injury.

"I went to seven funerals that week," said Lamb, 43, who later climbed the 11,250-foot mountain and planted seven flags for his friends. "It challenges everything you believe. You question God: 'How can you let this happen?'

"I handled it initially by drinking and partying a lot. That got me into some trouble. After a few years, I cleaned up my life. I have an awareness of mortality - not in a morbid way, but a more positive way."

He's transformed that into a successful solo career with his own band, six albums, musical partnerships with Diane Schuur, Gino Vannelli, Bobby Caldwell, Jeff Lorber and Chris Botti and a succession of civic and philanthropic endeavors.

In Portland, he's been given an Independent Spirit of Portland and Caring Heart awards for "outstanding contributions to the community. He's aided multiple causes, ranging from multiple sclerosis, cancer, diabetes and ALS to a children's hospital and the Christic School.

"When you live life for awhile you learn to appreciate things and have an attitude of gratitude," said Lamb, who's starting his own Patrick Lamb Foundation for the Arts. "Do not take anything for granted. If you have a car and more than $15 in the bank, you have more than 85 percent of the people on Earth.

"If everybody does their little parts, there's not as much to do. It makes me feel good just to help out. I keep a good perspective. I'm grateful for what I have."

His foundation will "focus on data and science" documenting the benefits of music on young people's lives and educations.

"The first thing is to just value art, rather than all the hocus-pocus and smoke-and-mirrors," he said. "Commit to making it a fundamental part of education. As much as math and science."

Lamb is reacting from experience: His common interests in science and the arts.

His dad, Bill, taught science for 30 years in Jackson, Miss., where Lamb was born: "His kids won world championships."

Lamb came kind of close. His jazzy-sounding, third-place project in a state contest? "The Effect of the Magnetic Field on the Anodyzation of a Titanium Backside Electrode in a Photo-Voltaic Cell."

When he was 13, the family - he has three siblings and mom Marilyn is a massage therapist - moved to Portland. "It was kind of fortuitous" that Lamb enrolled late in school. So, he had to pick an instrument from illustrations in a book. After one week with a clarinet, he re-chose a saxophone.

"I couldn't be a slacker," he said. "I played and practiced a lot. I found I had an aptitude for it pretty quickly. I was getting kind of bored."

His dad "challenged" him with the sophisticated "Charlie Parker Omnibook": "After that, I got really excited."

Lamb was an 18-year-old student at Mount Hood Community College when Schuur heard him at a local cub (The Quarry).

"What's usual about the music business is anything can happen," Lamb said. You've just gotta take advantage. Only the top 3 percentile makes it."

He has, collaborating with jazz musicians, performing with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra in April and, in 2005, creating "Let the Good Times Roll, a Tribute to Ray Charles" for a 15-piece big band.

He's released a new single ("Savoir Faire) from an upcoming album ("Pick Up the Pieces"), is developing a vocal album and planning a Nov. 8 PBS special with Vannelli.

Lamb hasn't written specifically about that teenage tragedy, though.

"That's a great idea," he said. "Maybe. I've stayed away from that. It's a double-edged sword. Do I really wanna go there? Maybe I'll maybe work on something, though."